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Foreign minister Kotzias to start briefing party leaders on 'Macedonia' name talks

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias on Monday was to start briefing party leaders on the progress of his talks in Vienna last week with his counterpart from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Dimitrov, on ongoing United-Nations mediated talks on the "Macedonia" name issue.

Kotzias was first brief Greek Communist Party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas and then the leader of centrist To Potami Stavros Theodorakis.

On Tuesday, Kotzias is to meet with Movement for Change leader Fofi Gennimata and then Union of Centrists head Vassilis Leventis.

The head of the main conservative New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis has refused to meet with Kotzias, objecting to a split within the ruling coalition over how to handle the name talks, and will be represented instead by ND's shadow foreign minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos.

Next week, Kotzias is to meet again with Dimitrov for further negotiations.

Although positive signals emerged from last week's talks in Austria, differences remain.

Athens wants the name solution to be “erga omnes,” meaning that it would be for general use, at home and abroad.

It also wants changes to parts of FYROM’s constitution deemed irredentist.